ReactOS 0.2 was released recently and this time it sports a new GUI. This short review with screenshots, shows some of the new improvements in this release. A huge improvement is that this release of ReactOS has some Win32 compatibility being able to run Solitaire and Winamp.

... but I think they are a bit scared as they have to be super-cautious that nothing of the leaked sources, even just a comment finds it way into theirs. And I hope they be more inventive with their GUI unlike SkyOS which did not consider to go beyond the usual WIMP.

I just heard about the project a week or two ago and find it very interesting!
There is a lot of potential because there are a _lot_ of windows developers outthere that can participate in the project.

I for myself run Linux (fedora core 1 atm) which is for me the most adult free alternative outthere... but development of ReactOS can grow exponentially when the basic things like networking and SEH are settled!

I think that ReactOS is a neat little project. I'm not a big fan of either Microsoft or of Windows, but I've thought for quite a while that the NT kernel was nice (and still do).

Two things that irk me about ReactOS though; the first being their use of FreeDOS's command.com as their cmd.exe and the second being the fact that the ReactOS hal.dll isn't nearly as useful as NT's. FreeCOM really sucks (it doesn't even do pipes right from what I recall) and the HAL in ReactOS only abstracts away the differences between motherboards.

So what's the point of it? To create an open and free version of Windows? Sorry but that just aint good enough, it needs some serious improvements and I can't see that happening while maintaining compatibility, even the basic requirements of removing the registry and sorting out the file structure would cause some headaches.

Well done the ReactOS team - I will definitely keep an eye on this OS.
I hope the ReactOS team avoids the multitude of security issues of the OS it is modelling itself on.
How about Litestep or Blackbox as a shell?
I hope they don't mind me saying "Keep up the good work".

Luddite
soon to be ex-windows user - at home that is - work is all micro$oft

It seems that the progress to ReactOS is progressing quite well. Although I bet it can propably run more than just Solitare. The current biuld of Wine can run MSO 2000, and more, so why cant react OS. I think it propably can. Also, it will be nice when this finally reaches the RTM stages, as I will be able to replace Windows with a free alternative that is not *nix based. Oh yeah, does anyone know of USB 2.0 is going to be supported in ReactOS eventually, and also, will it have native support for all Windows drivers?

In response to your question about USB drivers, yes USB 2.0 will be supported eventually. The idea of ReactOS is to use windows drivers natively. This is different from say WINE on a UNIX box which does not let you use windows drivers.

Good, it looks like ROS will finally be what I have been searching for for the last 2 years, a completly free Windows replacement capable of running my current software collection. Once other quesion, how is a DirectX compatibility layer going to be implimented, so I can play GTA: Vice City in ReactOS, or will DirectX install under it?

Sorry when my post sounded like flaming SkyOS - it just came to my mind. I could also name syllable or any other OS (including ReactOS).

Well, I was aware of that GUI contest and I also like the new theme but at that time it was alway promoted as a Hobby-OS ... and I hoped Robert is courageous enough to go for a really alternative approach (I can not really remember the name, but there was one really inventive). Instead, you saying you implemented what people like most. As an architect by education I can just say: your costumers do not know what they want - thats just a matter of fact.

There might be one or the other equal line as well, thats no surprise for such a large project about the same theme, but unless a Microsoft developer is part of the development team (or sended patches in), there won't be whole files or bigger parts of files.